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Impact Investing can catalyse innovations that help unravel some of society’s most pressing issues.

This week, in the lead up to the G8 Summit in Enniskillen, Prime Minister Cameron will convene key global leaders from
government, civil society, and the private sector to evaluate the potential and practicalities of using “social impact
investing” to tackle significant global challenges. We urge the world to take notice of this positive development.
The scale of our global problems far exceeds the resources currently allocated to solve them. By tapping the power of markets, impact investing has strong promise of unlocking new capital sources that can complement existing philanthropic and government funds. It can also catalyse innovations that help unravel some of society’s most pressing issues.

Simply put, impact investments are those that generate social or environmental value, as well as financial return. This
year impact investors will channel billions of dollars to fund impactful innovations in sectors as diverse as sustainable
agriculture, affordable housing, clean technology, and financial services for the poor.

G8 governments have an essential role to play in helping this quickly growing field achieve maximum social benefit. Today’s
problems are systemic and present risks that affect multiple economies at once, requiring responses that are coordinated
across geographies. By creating an enabling policy environment, G8 countries can support promising
innovations and help scale marketbased solutions across national borders. Collaboration amongst G8
governments will also help streamline efforts, enable cross-border capital flow, and avoid duplication as the nascent industry develops supportive infrastructure to help it grow into a global market.

We applaud Prime Minister Cameron and officials from G8 countries for their proactive step to embrace the promise
of impact investing as an important complement to existing efforts by the public and non-profit sectors. We urge the G8
to translate the outputs of the June 6 meeting into bold action and encourage the G20 to take note and follow suit. We stand
ready to support the task force appointed to carry forward the recommendations that emerge from this convening.